Have you ever noticed patterns in nature? Have you ever noticed number patterns?

Kelly is very excited for summer vacation. She has been accepted into a Teen Wilderness program and will be spending four weeks hiking, camping and learning wilderness skills in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There are a bunch of other students who will be going too. Kelly hasn’t met them yet.

In two weeks there will be a pre-trip meeting. At the pre-trip meeting, Kelly will meet the other kids in the program and learn specifics about the summer. In the meantime, Kelly is so excited that she is counting the days. To help her pass the time, her Mom bought her a couple of books about hiking and nature.

One of the books talks all about nature and unique features about nature. One of the chapters in the books talks all about patterns in nature. Kelly is fascinated.

“Listen to this,” she tells her friend Sara. “There are patterns on leaves and trees and flowers. In fact, according to this, the way a tree divides into branches follows a specific pattern.”

“That is cool,” Sara says. “Do you think it is really true?”

“We could go and check it out,” Kelly suggests.

The girls decide to investigate. On a piece of paper Kelly writes the following pattern.

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13....

When the girls arrive at the park, they sit down in front of one of the trees. Kelly reads the following information.

“This pattern in nature is called the Fibonacci pattern after an Italian mathematician. He discovered that many things in nature follow this pattern of numbers.”

“Very interesting, but how does it apply to trees?” Sara asked.

As the girls investigate some trees, it is your turn to learn about patterns. Kelly and Sara are going to discover patterns in nature. Patterns in nature are mathematical and that there are many of them. In this lesson you will learn all about patterns as you explore thinking algebraically. At the end of the lesson we will see what Kelly and Sara learned about patterns in nature.

Guidance

We see
patterns
all around us each and every day. We see them on soccer balls, in fabric, in the way different gardens are designed, even our day can be organized in a pattern. Recognizing patterns is second nature to us and feels very natural.

In primary grades, you learned to count by
etc. This type of counting involves counting in patterns. In fact, counting in this way was probably so natural that you didn’t even realize how simple it was when you were doing it.

This chapter is about
algebraic thinking.
We could say that algebraic thinking is about learning to think mathematically. One of the keys to algebraic thinking comes from recognizing and understanding patterns.
As you learn more advanced mathematics, patterns are going to become more and more useful. We can investigate and work to understand two types of patterns:
numerical patterns
and
geometric patterns.

Numerical patterns use numbers and geometric patterns use visual shapes and figures. Both are useful and this lesson will teach you about both of them.

Let’s begin with numerical patterns.

What is a numerical pattern?

A numerical pattern is a sequence of numbers that uses a formula or rule to generate the sequence.

Numerical patterns can be organized in a couple of different ways.

When numbers in a pattern get larger as the sequence continues, they are in an
ascending pattern
.

When numbers in a pattern get smaller as the sequence continues, they are in a
descending pattern
.

Every pattern has a sequence that has been created based on a pattern rule.
Examining the relationship between the numbers in a pattern can help us to determine the rule used by the pattern. Pattern rules can use one or more mathematical operations to describe the relationship.

Looking for pattern rules is a lot like being a detective! You have to use your detective skills to decipher the relationship between the numbers. Once you have figured out the relationship between the numbers, you can work on expressing this relationship in the form of a rule.

Find the pattern rule in the following sequence: 243, 81, 27, 9.

Alright math detectives, get ready. We need to figure out how each of these numbers is related to the others. There is a way that they are related we just have to figure out how.

First we can take an overview of the numbers.
All the numbers are odd and all have 9 as a factor. The numbers get smaller in value as the sequence continues, so this is a
descending pattern.

Think about this. The pattern is descending-the numbers get smaller. We need to figure out which operation is involved in the pattern rule.

Which operations help us in making numbers smaller?

Subtraction and division help us to make numbers smaller. This tells us that subtraction or division is involved in the pattern rule.

Next we have to dive a little farther into the figuring out the rule.

Let’s start with the smaller numbers.

What is the relationship between 27 and 9?

Nine is a factor of 27 because
.

But we are looking for division or subtraction here.

Since
, it is possible that

A possible pattern rule is
.

How can we test it out to be sure that this is the correct pattern rule?

To test it out, we have to be sure that it works for all of the other numbers in the pattern. Let’s look at the pattern again.

The pattern works! Our pattern rule is
.

That pattern was a descending pattern. Now let’s look at an ascending pattern.

Find the pattern rule in the following sequence: 1, 3, 11, 43.

First we take an overview of the numbers.
All the numbers are odd and this is an ascending pattern. Therefore,
addition and/or multiplication
are operations involved in the pattern rule because that is the way we increase numbers in mathematics.

Now let’s compare the first and second number.

What is the relationship between 1 and 3?

, so +2 is a possible pattern rule, but the jump between the second number (3) and the third number (11) is much larger than +2. Such a large jump indicates that multiplication must be one of the operations in the pattern rule.

How can we figure out how multiplication is used in the pattern rule?

To do this, we look at the relationship between the second and third number. The third number (11) is close to 9 and 12, both of which have relationships with the second number (3),
and
. This means that the pattern rule could either be
or
.

When we try out both rules with the list, we see that
is the correct pattern rule.

Now it's time for you to try a few on your own. Practice finding the rule for each pattern.

Example A

5, 8, 11, 14

Solution: The pattern rule is
.

Example B

20, 10, 5, 2.5

Solution: The pattern rule is
.

Example C

4, 7, 13, 25, 49

Solution: The pattern rule is
.

Now let's go back to the patterns that the girls were seeing in nature.

Now that you have learned all about patterns, it is time to revisit the original problem with Kelly and Sara and their nature patterns. Reread the problem and underline any important information.

Kelly is very excited for summer vacation. She has been accepted into a Teen Wilderness program and will be spending four weeks hiking, camping and learning wilderness skills in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. There are a bunch of other students who will be going too. Kelly hasn’t met them yet.

In two weeks there will be a pre-trip meeting. At the pre-trip meeting, Kelly will meet the other kids in the program and learn specifics about the summer. In the meantime, Kelly is so excited that she is counting the days. To help her pass the time, her Mom bought her a couple of books about hiking and nature.

One of the books talks all about nature and unique features about nature. One of the chapters in the books talks all about patterns in nature. Kelly is fascinating.

“Listen to this,” she tells her friend Sara. “There are patterns on leaves and trees and flowers. In fact, according to this, the way a tree divides into branches follows a specific pattern.”

“That is cool,” Sara says. “Do you think it is really true?”

“We could go and check it out,” Kelly suggests.

The girls decide to investigate. On a piece of paper Kelly writes the following pattern.

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13....

When the girls arrive at the park, they sit down in front of one of the trees. Kelly reads the following information.

“This pattern in nature is called the Fibonacci pattern after an Italian mathematician. He discovered that many things in nature follow this pattern of numbers.”

“Very interesting, but how does it apply to trees?” Sara asked.

You just finished learning all about patterns. What is the rule for the Fibonacci pattern of numbers that Sara and Kelly are using?

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13,

If you look you can see that the two previous numbers add together to equal the next number. This is the rule.

Vocabulary

Pattern

a sequence of number or geometric figures that repeats according to a pattern unit or a rule.